If you pay peanuts -

[Benny and the Blades]

You get Monkeys, bit harsh I know but for the most part it just about sums up today's football...
It not about history it's not about fan base and it certainly not about fair play, it's all about money, and in general the more some one is prepared to pay the better the team.
There are always exception to any rule they say but not in football, because it's not just about getting there and even if by some great stroke of luck you do, if your club hasn't got that massive permanent financial backing it's days are numbered and the whole set up will crumble like a pack of cards..
So where abouts in this financial driven jungle do you seriously expect the Blades to be ?
For me and I think for most people with the fan base we have I'd expect top half Championship any thing below that would be under achieving and above that would be over achieving, but are we all living in the past ?
I'm not a big fan of looking at our neighbors but for all their MASSIVE fan base they are struggling to even make mid table and this makes me wonder just how far has the game changed over the last ten years, and will we ever be good enough to be a regular top six Championship club again ?

 

[Pinchy]

I seriously expect us to exist relatively comfortably in the lower half of the Premiership within the next five years. So, no doubt to the scorn of some, do the Chairmen, directors and management.

 

[Coily]

Don't use the Pigs as a yardstick, they are potless and Mandy is stumping up enough for them to survive.

The Championship is not that good. Can it be with Bournemouth so high up? Wolves are right up there, Brentford too.

Should we go up then we have a few players who would make the step up easily. The test will be for the Prince to open the wallet more, but if he does I would expect us to be top half and pushing from there.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

You get Monkeys, bit harsh I know but for the most part it just about sums up today's football...
It not about history it's not about fan base and it certainly not about fair play, it's all about money, and in general the more some one is prepared to pay the better the team.
There are always exception to any rule they say but not in football, because it's not just about getting there and even if by some great stroke of luck you do, if your club hasn't got that massive permanent financial backing it's days are numbered and the whole set up will crumble like a pack of cards..
So where abouts in this financial driven jungle do you seriously expect the Blades to be ?
For me and I think for most people with the fan base we have I'd expect top half Championship any thing below that would be under achieving and above that would be over achieving, but are we all living in the past ?
I'm not a big fan of looking at our neighbors but for all their MASSIVE fan base they are struggling to even make mid table and this makes me wonder just how far has the game changed over the last ten years, and will we ever be good enough to be a regular top six Championship club again ?

Hold on to your hat - we are going up this season, and then do a Southampton and a Blades of old and go straight through.

As for the pigs - Bert Mcgee had them sorted, and then every chairman since has fucked em up or bled them dry - pathetic has beens.

UTB

 

[grafikhaus]

I think the gulf between League One and the Championship is roughly the same as that between the Premier and the Championship. Teams regularly drop out of the PL with massive parachute payments and fail to make an immediate impression in the Championship (or, in Wolves' case, drop straight though.)

Make no mistake, if we somehow limp over the line this season, practically a new team will be needed.

Having said that, the Champ. is our natural home - away followings meaning we'd average around 26k.

 

[beatific blade]

Fantastic one-touch football for the second. I thought we retained possession very well last night - with the exception of McEverley who I thought was below par for once.

That's three times we've bummed Crewe this season; they must be sick of the sight of our midgets!

 

[Bladesway]

Think we have Premiership support but realistically am happy in the top 10 of the Championship as a natural place to live. Occasionally we will push the Premiership perhaps even spend more than one season there.

If we win one trophy before I curl my toes up I will be happy. By that I mean league/FA Cup.

Residing in the top 20 cheats of English football doesn't really float my boat.

 

[JJBlade]

No reason why this club cannot maintain Premier League status.
Well actually there's one. The same thing that has constantly held us back for almost 100 years.
Get the correct people in the boardroom who can see potential instead of limitations and we can get back there and stay there, who knows maybe win a Cup and have a trip or two around Europe as well.
Lesser clubs than us have done it

 

[itsinyerblood]

No reason why this club cannot maintain Premier League status.
Well actually there's one. The same thing that has constantly held us back for almost 100 years.
Get the correct people in the boardroom who can see potential instead of limitations and we can get back there and stay there, who knows maybe win a Cup and have a trip or two around Europe as well.
Lesser clubs than us have done it

That's the spirit JJBlade, why not us indeed? The infrastructure is in place, so there needs to be the desire, confidence, and belief that it's possible to move forward. I think we all appreciate there are no guarantees, but it's not as if we're building from the bottom up. It needs those with control of the purse-strings to use better judgement than we've been used to, give the manager the resources to compete, and from there, who knows what can happen?

 

[Esablade]

They're are signs though, despite whatever boardroom shenanigans, that Clough is getting us playing some lovely stuff...I for one welcome that..

 

[Woodwardfan]

My dream would be for Clough to lead us back to the Premiership over say 5 years with an ever improving squad playing attractive football.

My hope is that the board have that ambition and back the manager appropriately. I think they have created the environment for the first stage at least.

My concern is whether the manager is big enough and driven enough to lead such a massive recovery, bearing in mind where we were a year ago, indeed even now.. If he succeeds the achievement will rank alongside, lets say, one of the renaissances his mighty father achieved at Derby and Forest. How amazing would that be for him and us!

Clough is from a stock which recognises such a major project and I suspect he would not be enticed away during the whole process. He has remained loyal to his previous two clubs.

I for one will remain loyal to him through the inevitable ups and downs on the way. Whether he is big enough I do not know and only time will tell. He has some strange quirks but I reckon he's sound as a pound, sort of bloke you'd think had been born a Blade.

If it does happen in the next 5 years or so then my part of the deal is to stay alive to see it. Like Bladesway above I detest the Premiership and all its culture stands for. However it is the only place to be and we can still retain our values and cock a snook at the lot of them.

 

[Darthblade]

Don't use the Pigs as a yardstick, they are potless and Mandy is stumping up enough for them to survive.

The Championship is not that good. Can it be with Bournemouth so high up? Wolves are right up there, Brentford too.

Should we go up then we have a few players who would make the step up easily. The test will be for the Prince to open the wallet more, but if he does I would expect us to be top half and pushing from there.

Unfortunately, in order to get out of this Division, you have to have consistency and that we do not have. We will not achieve consistency until we have at least 2 strikers at the Club who can regularly score goals and we stop conceding silly goals, particularly from set pieces.

That, regrettably in the case of strikers, means spending some money; not a fortune, but more than we are currently prepared to do. Don't hold your breath on promotion unless the level of financial support promised to NC materialises.
UTB & FTP

 

[Darthblade]

Hold on to your hat - we are going up this season, and then do a Southampton and a Blades of old and go straight through.

As for the pigs - Bert Mcgee had them sorted, and then every chairman since has fucked em up or bled them dry - pathetic has beens.

UTB

I wish I could share your optimism, however, I have seen nothing to persuade me that this squad has enough goals in it to achieve promotion. I have witnessed plenty to persuade me that unless we "beef up" the squad immediately, and certainly some dramatic changes in January, we will probably finish between 5th and 8th.
Don't like it myself at all but I'm trying to be realistic. The Board must step up to the plate if we are to have a chance of promotion.
UTB & FTP

 

[Northyorksblade]

I'd be happy competing in the championship. Premier league sucks for me.

 

[grafikhaus]

Unfortunately, in order to get out of this Division, you have to have consistency and that we do not have. We will not achieve consistency until we have at least 2 strikers at the Club who can regularly score goals and we stop conceding silly goals, particularly from set pieces.

That, regrettably in the case of strikers, means spending some money; not a fortune, but more than we are currently prepared to do. Don't hold your breath on promotion unless the level of financial support promised to NC materialises.
UTB & FTP

Agree. It's not worth getting carried away by a win against an extremely poor Crewe side. Once again, if the breaks hadn't gone our way, we'd have been punished. Make the same basic errors against Oldham and Notts County, and we will be.

 

[LSF]

Unfortunately, in order to get out of this Division, you have to have consistency and that we do not have. We will not achieve consistency until we have at least 2 strikers at the Club who can regularly score goals and we stop conceding silly goals, particularly from set pieces.
UTB & FTP

Darth, you've forgotten the pacy, powerful, skilful, creative, ball winning, box to box, holding midfielder you've been banging on about since time began. (Too add to the 8 decent league 1 midfielders we have already)

 

[Woodwardfan]

I wish I could share your optimism, however, I have seen nothing to persuade me that this squad has enough goals in it to achieve promotion. I have witnessed plenty to persuade me that unless we "beef up" the squad immediately, and certainly some dramatic changes in January, we will probably finish between 5th and 8th.
Don't like it myself at all but I'm trying to be realistic. The Board must step up to the plate if we are to have a chance of promotion.
UTB & FTP

Just have a read of the recent thread "SUFC 2013" and see what you think; pertinent to points you make on both your posts on here.

 

[Darthblade]

Darth, you've forgotten the pacy, powerful, skilful, creative, ball winning, box to box, holding midfielder you've been banging on about since time began. (Too add to the 8 decent league 1 midfielders we have already)

I've given up on that / those dreams mate, since its pretty clear that NC does not have the financial support of the Board, that was promised to him. Not a surprise to me; I've been supporting the Blades for 50 years and I rarely see our Board's promises materialise ..... its usually just talk talk.

But without strikers scoring ....... don't waste your money on bets even at 10/1. Goals win games and get 3 points and atm we have few goals in our squad. There are 9 points up for grabs in just over a week shortly and how we can go into that sort of fixture crush with no strikers at the Club is beyond me. It is incompetence on a biblical scale at the highest level of the Club.

What they are trying to do, of course, is get promoted without spending any money, but that is disrespectful to the other Clubs in this Division and having been tested in the last 3 seasons, with failure on each occasion, its a plan that is destined to disappoint the long suffering supporters of SUFC. The Club do NOT deserve the superb support that they continue to get !!
UTB & FTP

 

[Pinchy]

Agree. It's not worth getting carried away by a win against an extremely poor Crewe side. Once again, if the breaks hadn't gone our way, we'd have been punished. Make the same basic errors against Oldham and Notts County, and we will be.

Unfortunately the Football League's fixtures bloke insisted that we played Crewe. Thus they were the only team available for us to play some delightful football against.

What were the 'breaks' of which you speak? Our very able goalie making a good save? Crewe having a shot at goal that didn't go in?

Ah, the Bladesfans' Way. One of life's comforting constants.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Unfortunately, in order to get out of this Division, you have to have consistency and that we do not have. We will not achieve consistency until we have at least 2 strikers at the Club who can regularly score goals and we stop conceding silly goals, particularly from set pieces.

That, regrettably in the case of strikers, means spending some money; not a fortune, but more than we are currently prepared to do. Don't hold your breath on promotion unless the level of financial support promised to NC materialises.
UTB & FTP

last 14 league games 29 points if thats not consistancy i dont know what is!? thats promotion form.

 

[wizadry]

Agree. It's not worth getting carried away by a win against an extremely poor Crewe side. Once again, if the breaks hadn't gone our way, we'd have been punished. Make the same basic errors against Oldham and Notts County, and we will be.

We will be the first side that Notts County lose to away in the league this season,and Oldham will be wishing they never turned up on Saturday when they visit the lovely BDTBL.

 

[Benny and the Blades]

I some times wonder how much a part of this game luck plays, we've fallen at the last hurdle so many times I'm beginning to think we really have been cursed.
The number of times the team hasn't turned up for that final crucial game or lost form in the last few games of the season and been pipped at the post is almost unbelievable ....
I think that Nigel is the best chance we've had of breaking this hoodoo for a long time.......................... UTB

 

[Bladesway]

Unfortunately, in order to get out of this Division, you have to have consistency and that we do not have.

Really? Think our results last 10 games or so have been pretty strong to be fair. Second half of last season was consistency personified. Bit of a fumble early on as we found our feet but we aren't actually doing bad. Can't argue we don't need strengthening though.

 

[Darthblade]

last 14 league games 29 points if thats not consistancy i dont know what is!? thats promotion form.

But regrettably 29 points from 16 games isn't promotion form, particularly when averaging 1.4 goals per game.
We do not have enough goals in this squad for a promotion challenge, is my opinion and nothing has been done about it, is the problem. I hope I'm proved wrong in May .......
UTB & FTP

 

[Darthblade]

Really? Think our results last 10 games or so have been pretty strong to be fair. Second half of last season was consistency personified. Bit of a fumble early on as we found our feet but we aren't actually doing bad. Can't argue we don't need strengthening though.

We were consistent after the Crewe Away game last season, but relegation contenders before. Still don't have enough goals in the squad at the moment to be seriously considering promotion.
UTB & FTP

 

[Fulwood Blade]

I think the gulf between League One and the Championship is roughly the same as that between the Premier and the Championship. Teams regularly drop out of the PL with massive parachute payments and fail to make an immediate impression in the Championship (or, in Wolves' case, drop straight though.)

Make no mistake, if we somehow limp over the line this season, practically a new team will be needed.

Having said that, the Champ. is our natural home - away followings meaning we'd average around 26k.

I wish I could share your optimism, however, I have seen nothing to persuade me that this squad has enough goals in it to achieve promotion. I have witnessed plenty to persuade me that unless we "beef up" the squad immediately, and certainly some dramatic changes in January, we will probably finish between 5th and 8th.
Don't like it myself at all but I'm trying to be realistic. The Board must step up to the plate if we are to have a chance of promotion.
UTB & FTP

Strange how fans see things differently.

We have a good squad now, little changes in January - the defence gets better each week and we appear as though we are difficult to score against us.

Lets see how we do in our next 3 home games (Oldham/Notts/MK) and then see how we all feel.

Cloughs way of playing is a bit boring as he hates to concede, and 1 or 2 goals is enough for him. Will do for me also - old cliché - if you don't concede, you don't lose.

The amount of possession we are getting now is quite scary, and if the other don't have they can't do very much.

UTB

 

[Darthblade]

Strange how fans see things differently.

We have a good squad now, little changes in January - the defence gets better each week and we appear as though we are difficult to score against us.

Lets see how we do in our next 3 home games (Oldham/Notts/MK) and then see how we all feel.

Cloughs way of playing is a bit boring as he hates to concede, and 1 or 2 goals is enough for him. Will do for me also - old cliché - if you don't concede, you don't lose.

The amount of possession we are getting now is quite scary, and if the other don't have they can't do very much.

UTB

I understand your point regarding possession, however, we do have a remarkable inability to convert the possession into goals to finish teams off. As you say, games against Oldham, Notts Co, MK Dons will very much shape how we finish 2014 in the league.

I really just cannot see goals as we don't have a striker at the Club who "lights the blue touchpaper" !! Nobody will be more delighted, come May, than me if I am just a pessimistic old bas**rd and we have achieved promotion ........ but I'm not holding my breath.
UTB & FTP

 

[Fulwood Blade]

last 14 league games 29 points if thats not consistancy i dont know what is!? thats promotion form.

That SIMPLE statistic is lost on so many people.

So we don't score many fucking goals - so what, we also DO NOT concede many.

Clough is BUILDING a squad and a team - give him some breathing space FFS. As each week goes on we are getting better - this is not a boom and bust scenario - it's a slow burner that is starting to burn brighter each week. Barnsley was a step back, we have just taken a couple forward.

UTB